Investigators have been following his trail since 2011. Karim Ouali, suspected of the assassination of an air traffic controller, had disappeared from the authorities' radars since 2018, when the French justice had been informed by the Hong Kong authorities of his arrest in 2014, as well as of his placement under judicial supervision for two years for illegal stay. Then nothing. Until February 15: a photo published on a dating site arrested the police of the National Fugitive Search Brigade (BNRF). "
The brigade of fugitives has validated that this portrait is that of Karim Aderfi Ouali,
"
Mulhouse public prosecutor Edwige Roux-Morizot
told
Figaro
, confirming information from the
Parisian
.
Now 45 years old, Karim Ouali was spotted by investigators on the Hong Kong dating site Loveawake.com, under the pseudonym "Shemen", the daily said.
"
If there had been any doubt, the information would not have come out, which is why I can affirm it: we are sure that Karim Aderfi Ouali is in Hong Kong and that it is indeed his photo
”, continues the magistrate.
Read also: Karim Ouali, the elusive genius-killer who has become the most wanted man in France
Karim Ouali is suspected of having, in 2011, killed Jean Meyer, 34, discovered dead at the foot of a staircase leading to the control tower of the Franco-Swiss airport of Basel-Mulhouse, where the suspect worked as a controller aerial trainee.
According to the autopsy, the man died after receiving several stab wounds.
Depressed, Karim Ouali was on sick leave but had kept his badges allowing him to access the control tower.
To read also: All the fonts on the heels of Karim Ouali, fan of the "Joker" and alleged ax killer
Conviction in absentia
Yet under an international arrest warrant for assassination, "
there was no use of the information communicated by the French justice to the authorities in Hong Kong
", indignant the prosecutor. “
We know his address and have other very reliable and accurate information about him, but although we have requested a number of investigations, these have only been partially completed. This is why the examining magistrate wanted to go there in January 2020, but, as was demanded just before the confinement, all this went unheeded. It is a great legal and family frustration
”, deplores Edwige Roux-Morizot.
After 10 years of efforts and after having carried out multiple international letters rogatory, the prosecutor of Mulhouse announced to
Le Figaro
that "
from September 2021, taking into account the elements which appear in the file
", the justice hopes "
a conviction in absentia, in order to increase the chances that Karim Ouali can answer for his acts
”.
